The calls around the world for a socialist Universal Basic Income, or UBI, have been gaining popularity in many nations. Some nations have been experimenting with this concept, but now the nation of Spain has decided to give a UBI to 850,000 families according to Fox5NY.
The Spanish government will provide more money for the country’s most impoverished 850,000 families so they can reach a minimum monthly income in the nation’s first attempt to guarantee a basic salary.
The plan was approved by the ruling left-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The leader of the Spanish Socialist Party is under pressure to spur economic recovery and reduce the fallout from a two-month lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus that’s killed at least 27,000.
Citizens over 21 will be eligible for benefits if they don’t meet a minimum monthly income ranging from 461 euros ($513) to 1,015 euros ($1,130), depending on the number of family members. Migrants who have been in Spain for more than one year can apply.
Social Security Minister José Luis Escrivá says the measure intends to reduce poverty and inequality. He says 100,000 households will immediately benefit and the government aims to include 750,000 more in coming months. The total cost for Spain’s public coffers is estimated at 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) annually. (source)
The concept of a UBI sounds great, but it always ends disastrously because people have to continually pay out more money than can be taken in. Basic mathematics is its enemy because the calculations to support it do not add up. That is, unless one wants to cause social chaos that could be uses to start a revolution or other socially destabilizing movement using the drain on financial resources as an excuse to justify violence. This has happened before and is happening right now in Germany with the refugee situation- the refugees are not “robbing” the German treasury, but are being given it under the guise of free social handouts, and in doing so, it is angering the people and encouraging nationalism.
Is this what the end purpose of the UBI is? One cannot say, but it does not matter what one’s race or national origin are when it comes to cause and effect, as the result of serious, long-term social instability coupled with poverty is a historically proven formula to incite a revolution anywhere.
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